Synthesis Efforts of Acyclic Bis(monoalkylamino)maleonitriles and Macrocyclic Bis(dialkylamino)maleonitriles as Fluorescent Probes for Cations and a New Colorimetric Copper(II) Chemodosimeter

In this article, we report on the synthesis of acyclic bis(monoalkylamino)maleonitriles and intended macrocyclic bis(dialkylamino)maleonitriles to get fluorescent probes for cations. During our efforts synthesize bis(dialkylamino)maleonitriles, were only able isolate bis(dialkylamino)-fumaronitriles. The is challenging, due fact that bis-(dialkylamino)fumaronitriles are thermodynamically more stable than corresponding bis(dialkylamino)-maleonitriles. Further, it turned out no suitable tools detect cations by a strong fluorescence enhancement. bis(monoalkylamino)maleonitriles, which bearing 2-pyridyl unit as an additional complexing unit, selectively recognize copper(II) color change from yellow red.